Garden 5k w/pics

It is a deceiving beauty, one can only hope that it will distract you from the brutal hills that are hidden within "The Garden". A popular attraction, usually full of cars crammed with tourists that stop in the middle of the road to take a picture or two, paying no attention to the bottle neck they cause. But this morning was different. There were two police cars blocking off the entrance, the Garden was empty, and eerily silent.

As me and two friends went through our ritualistic 2 mile warm up we soaked in the vacant roads and paths that we had all to ourselves. As we ran up the hill at the entrance to the park, we slowly made our way to the hill we do our repeats, a brutal, unforgiving hill that would probably claim many unsuspecting victims that go out too fast. Luckily, we've been humbled by this beautiful monster many times. It has been described as a hill that makes heart break hill look like a speed bump....and worse of all you have to climb a 35 ft hill in the first half mile of the race to even get to it.

As we were finishing up our warm up with some downhill strides, we went over the game plan. Start up front, let those with a death wish fly by, and then reel them all in at the 1/2 mile mark, right at the foot of the hill that has made people DNF a 5k. The next mile has a steep downhill, followed by some beautiful rolling hills. We would regain our composure as we crest the hill, then try and hammer the down hill, and then attack the rollers by feel. The third mile starts with a steep climb, then rollers, and then the last half mile is mostly downhill with the finish taking us back to the 35 ft hill we had to climb at the start.....there is where we let it wail.

The road usually full of cars and overweight tourists was about to be taken over by some very thin, very fit runners ready to battle.

We positioned ourselves in the second row, I said a prayer, then as the gun went off, the flood gate of runners broke.....

Surprisingly not that many people flew by, but I said a prayer for those who did. As we crested the first hill and took a right into the park, we made our way to the second hill, easing into the race by effort, not by pace.

The hills had chopped my stride in half, and although my effort was through the roof, I felt like I was crawling. I just put my head down and went to work, doing my best to save something for the finish. As I got to the foot of the second hill I found comfort in the fact that I have run repeat after repeat up it, and although it was going to hurt no matter the pace, I reminded myself "Just another half mile to the top, then I can let the downhill demons loose"

I was surprised how quickly time seemed to fly on the hills, and as I reached the top my Garmin beeped at me with the first mile split, Mile 1, 6:57. RB#1 had attacked the hill like a bat out of hell, he was nowhere to be seen. RB#2 was now 20 yards in front of me and I was on a mission to reel him in. The first downhill is too steep to really get any good momentum so I just concentrated on not over striding and keeping a good turnover while trying to regain my composure. As it started to flatten out I caught and passed RB#2, we were on to the the rolling hills.

I was now in the backside of the park, and all I could think about was how quiet it was. No spectators, no aid stations, and no one around me. "So this is whats its like to be a front runner?" I thought to myself. I just soaked in the beauty, and even rubber necked to catch a glimpse of the snow covered peak a few times. Even though I was hurting, I managed a smile.

Nearing the end of the 2nd mile I had almost reeled two runners in, and was hearing footsteps behind me. I stole a glance back to see a runner in a yellow shirt gaining. Instead of running scared I just kept running by effort, if he did catch me, I wanted to have something in the tank to throw at him in the final kick. My Garmin beeped for Mile 2, 5:50.

Mile 3 started with another climb, ascending about 200m to a cone for the race's only 180 degree turnaround. I usually hate these turns, but it was a great chance to see where my competitors were. As I turned around and started the 200m descent I caught a glimpse of the finish line banner that was a little over a mile away at the parks entrance. I then saw the guy in the yellow shirt, we was only about 10m behind me. On the descent I caught one of the guys in front of me (grey shirt), and I surged past him to make sure he wasn't going to try and come with me. Yellow shirt had the same idea.

At the 2.5 mile mark I couldn't seem to make any ground on the other guy in front of me (his name is Andrew, and he always seems to beat me by 5-15 seconds in every race), and although I had dropped the (grey shirt) guy I just passed, yellow shirt had now made contact with me. As we came up to another slight downhill I opened my stride a little more and tried to create some distance. The mini surge didn't work, he was now on my shoulder, but I had gained a few meters on Andrew. I now found myself at the "1/2 mile to go mark" with Andrew 5 meters in front of me, and yellow shirt running shoulder to shoulder with me. I was hurting, but my competitive side came out, I remember thinking "Lets go to war", and that is just what I did.

I knew it was early, and it could be suicide, but I opened up into an all out sprint. I quickly caught Andrew, and then he opened up to a sprint himself, pulling away again.....I could only hope he cracked before I did. There was no other gears, the pedal was floored. I stole one more glance back and saw I had created a nice gap between yellow shirt and I, but the other guy we had passed was now right on his shoulder. It would be the last time I looked back.

the backdrop to the finish line....

My watch had beeped with the mile 3 split, but I didn't hear it, nor did I care. I heard a "GO DADDY GO" from my right side, but couldn't even look over to wave.

Here is the order we came flying in....

Andrew...

runDANrun....

Yellow shirt (I met him after the race and his name is Tim)....

Then other guy we passed with a half mile to go (I also met him after the race, Emory, a college student from TX)......

As I crossed the line I hit my watch, then put my hands on my knees. For the effort I had just put in, I was surprised I wasn't hurting as much as I thought I would have been. As I caught my breath Andrew came over to give me a fist bump with a pleasant "I thought you had me this time". Then we both made our way over to Tim and Emory as they crossed the line to give them the props they also deserved.

Turns out I covered the last 0.11 miles in 30 seconds, which was an overall 4:45ish pace, for a guy who doesn't usually have any kick at the end of a race, I was happy with that! (even if it was downhill)

There was no PR, but with an 8th overall finish I was happy with my time of 19:30. It has been said that this course will chop anywhere from 75-90 seconds off your current 5k ability, (The overall winner had run a 15:32 three weeks before, and won with a time of 17:01, so it sounds about right) so it looks like I am still on track for my sub 17:30 min attempt in mid June.

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